Tue, March 1st, 2005 by andre
I didn't know that color photography had been invented by then but this site has color images that were taken by the French Army during World War I.
Very very cool.
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March 1st, 2005 at 9:47 pm
_Gone With The Wind_ (1939) was in color... Had you forgotten, or are there technological differences I don't know about?
March 1st, 2005 at 10:33 pm
There's a great book called "Bound for Glory" that is full of color photos from 1939-43. If you're into these, check that out.
March 1st, 2005 at 10:38 pm
WWI was way before Gone with the Wind, 1918-ish.
March 1st, 2005 at 10:49 pm
Pretty surreal images considering age and context. You have to love that narrow focus on shots like this:
http://www.bigdandbubba.com/images/sap01_cvl00136_p.jpg
March 1st, 2005 at 11:30 pm
My mistake, I misread the roman numeral I for II. I have no excuse, and plead forgiveness. I am donning my hair shirt.
March 2nd, 2005 at 2:01 am
Thoses pictures are called autochrome. I spent my military period here in France in ECPA where thoses pictures are kept. Even if it is a military place anyone can come and visit the photo library there (ECPA, Fort d'Ivry, near Paris). You can even buy prints of any picture visible at the library. I had the same reaction when I saw those autochromes because I'd always thought color photography was more recent. I have found this site : http://www.autochrome.com/
Marc.
March 2nd, 2005 at 9:01 am
Amazing shots. Some of them look like they could have been shot only a decade or so ago, not 90 years. Thanks for sharing this with us, Andre.
March 2nd, 2005 at 10:26 am
Nice find andre...
I think these two are gems:
http://www.bigdandbubba.com/images/sap01_cvl00005_p.jpg
and
http://www.bigdandbubba.com/images/sap01_cvl00268_p.jpg
March 2nd, 2005 at 11:41 am
Is there a color film out today that can get the same grain and color saturation of these plates? I'm assuming that these were taken on either a 4x5 or 8x10 view.
March 2nd, 2005 at 12:07 pm
Kris, there is no film today that looks anything like Autochrome. But, 35mm Fuji 1600 color neg film, pushed, say one stop, then scanned and de-saturated a lot, will get you as close as anything I know of. M:-D
March 2nd, 2005 at 12:49 pm
Thanks Michal, I'll try and get some and shoot it. I love the way the colors look on those plates and I think it might be a good way to set a mood in a photo.
March 2nd, 2005 at 4:52 pm
Those images are gorgeous. When I look at them, it's as if there's a conflict in my brain -- it expects them to be B&W, but we see colors. I find that adds a weird life-like dimension to them. Wow!
March 2nd, 2005 at 8:36 pm
On the topic of really old colour photography, I came across this a while back - http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/
From the site,
"The photographs of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) offer a vivid portrait of a lost world--the Russian Empire on the eve of World War I and the coming revolution.
"His unique images of Russia on the eve of revolution --recorded on glass plates-- were purchased by the Library of Congress in 1948 from his heirs. For this exhibition, the glass plates have been scanned and, through an innovative process known as digichromatography, brilliant color images have been produced."
Some of the images are quite spectacular.
March 6th, 2005 at 1:15 pm
After the mentioned site has gone offline, I did some research and found the original source of the images: The french Ministry of culture is showing a large collection of photos from that time online. That site is french only, and the images are a little hard to find there, so I set up this little gallery with selected pictures: http://www.alexemde.de/index.php?/autochromes/
These pictures were taken using the so called Autochrome process - There is also a website dedicated to these type of photos: http://www.autochrome.com/autonetsc.htm
March 12th, 2006 at 8:02 pm
I have a very extensive history and explaination of the autochrome process, plus 28 nice examples on line here at:
http://www.iphotocentral.com/showcase/showcase_view.php/62/1/0 .
April 23rd, 2007 at 9:03 am
my sons and i HAVE THE COLLECTION OF PHOTAGRAPHS OF ARTHUR E MORTON 1865 - 1932
consisting of approx 700 autochromes 200 paget colour plates
plus approx 1000 black and glass negatives
pictures mostly of the english home counties
hertfordshire surrey kent sussex etc
we would dearly like more info about him
he was fellow of the royal photographic society
secetary the society of colour photographers
author of books on the typewriter
lecturer in office procedures
approx 160 of the autochromes have been scanned by the science museum london
and will soon be on line at their site
scienceandsociety.co.uk
June 2nd, 2007 at 3:39 pm
The Arthur E Morton colection is now on the science snd society site and they are very good. Where can I buy a print Les?